Real Estate Strategy & Market Forecast: Tyler Vaughan on Scaling with Business Fundamentals

Hi Melissa Bell and welcome to the business roundup where we catch up with the movers and shakers in the business world. Today joining me is Tyler Vaughn. He's a business growth advisor, founder and a realtor. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks so much for having me. I'm happy to be here. So a lot of different industries and real estate being one of them has been on a rollercoaster ride. We're kind of going up and down. Rates have escalated and now I saw for the first time I think they're starting to come down and really significantly. They are, you know, it's I think what the market has been waiting for and you know, I think with anything human nature wise, we're always waiting for the next drop too, right? Because you know, just just a few drops aren't good enough to get people off the fence, but I think the market's definitely moving for me, especially in Northern Arizona, in the right direction. And we're seeing some some energy back into the market for sure, which is super exciting. So before we kind of talk a little bit about more about the company and just what you're doing right now, do you mind kind of giving some background? I know you come from a business background startup. She have a passion for that. How did you kind of get into real estate? Yeah, no, I'd love to talk about that. I mean, I think at its core, my professional journey has been about solving problems for people. Everything I've ever done found myself, you know, very fortunate to be a part of whether I started it or someone else didn't wrote me into it. It's been that. I mean, it's been a focus on solving problems for customers, clients and industries. And I think that's always been the draw to me because you know, at the heart of what I am as a problem solver. So yeah, I've had a very interesting journey. I was very fortunate to have started a global brand in Renegade GK, which was a soccer goalkeeper glove brand that my background is in soccer. So that's, you know, a random thing for most people. But that's what I knew of them where I came from. Definitely cut my teeth in an e-com back when e-com and Amazon were, you know, and still are booming. But it was kind of on the cusp of that journey for e-commerce brands. I had a blast. I focused on the forward-facing part of the company. I had a great partner who worked kind of back in stuff. And we got to blend skill sets and learn together, doing really great work, really getting into the, you know, selling a quality product for a little bit less than our competitors, which at that time were, you know, and still are the big brands Nike Adidas under them or all those guys. So super fun. I exited that successfully, stepped into a role as VP of sales and marketing for role pros, which is an automation manufacturer in an emerging market. Had a blast there starting really from scratch, capital equipment, building out sales teams, marketing teams, strategy, which is really where my passion is. I had a blast doing that. Then exited from there and have again been kind of fortunate to be in some different consulting roles with some different companies doing sort of the same thing for them, which led me to real estate. And then I realized, I think I was joking with you beforehand. I realized I was, I realized these guys on this team are having so much more fun than I'm having. What's going on? So I jumped in full time about two years ago. And I really haven't looked back since then. It's been a blast. I have a great team and people make work fun if you're surrounded by. I'm so I'm very fortunate for that. Now I know we talked a little bit to like real estate definitely gives you that kind of flexibility, which I don't think many types of industries can give you that. You have just your own boss right off the bat. That also has a little bit of pressure. I don't know those entrepreneurs like me. We like that, right? We don't like to answer to anybody. So yeah, it is fun. But it's also I think it's the differentiator between success and failure too. If you have, if you can't hold yourself accountable to simple things, even just a routine, right? I think that's probably for me where I've been able to win and succeed. I'm just used to it. So it's a pretty normal thing for me, but I agree with you. Now what's the name of the real estate company that you know? Good question. You know, real estate's a little funky, right? So we are, we are with real broker, which is the umbrella brokerage, the number one agency or brokerage. I think in the US nationally right now. Tip of the spear, which is why we joined technology being a focus. Just thinking about the evolution of real estate. That's what drew us in. So that was fantastic. And then the team, my mom is the Justin Mimus real estate team. Jbre is what we call ourselves. And we are the number one real estate team in northern Arizona and have been for the last five years. So super fortunate to be a part of a high achieving group of really kind, hardworking individuals, which is what, yeah, what what again, I said no to real estate for years and years and years. And then I finally gave in. And I'm happy I did. This has been a great chapter to my professional journey. Now I know you mentioned to that your area Arizona, but Flagstaff in particular is unique. Like what are some of the ways that's unique? And then I know post COVID it really kind of took off as well. There's a lot of things that kind of entice people to want to buy. Yeah, I mean, we're unique in the sense that we have elevation of, you know, probably an average of about 7,000 feet elevation. You know, in Arizona, everybody thinks about heat, heat, Phoenix desert craziness. And that's very true, which is what makes us such an enticing market in the Arizona market. We are probably somewhere each year, year over year, about a 50% second home market. So therefore we're looking at people are buying second homes, investment properties. We are the place that the, you know, the Metro, the Phoenix Metro escapes during the hot, you know, 120 degree days in the summer. And then we also offer four seasons, which is very unique. So I mean, we have a ski slope, which you'd never know. If anybody outside of Arizona thought there was, there was two ski slopes here actually, but in Flagstaff, there's one. Yeah, so we have four seasons. I mean, we've got the aspens changing in the fall. We've got beautiful spring summer. And then winter kind of turns into a winter wonderland. And old, an old route 66 town. It's a really unique place to live and to explore it. I think that's the draw the, that we have as a market that people want to be here. They want to live here. They want to own property here. We, we're sort of insulated from some of the national dynamics that exist. We feel them. I don't think we feel them as extreme as some of these, you know, larger metro areas, where there's just higher, higher supply, less demand. We have the opposite. We have incredible demand and very low supply, which makes our market, you know, this, this pretty wild little real estate market up here in the mountains. And I know now, how have you kind of taken your like business fundamentals and everything you've learned from business and kind of brought it into like the real estate? And I know you also mentioned to that you, you know, see that kind of real estate needs to kind of get with the times a lot of like the technologies that being used. Like it should be, can you kind of discuss that? Yeah, you know, I think honestly, I think it's not even, you know, technology might, might be, there might be too much of it to be fair. And I'm bad for trying to be tip of the spear and constantly trying new tools. And I think that's, that's a double-edged sword to be fair because at the end of the day, the same tactics and strategies, customer service, all of these different elements that build, you know, I've used for decades to build businesses and to work along people to help them build their business. I don't think any of that's different necessarily. I just think that we tend to be as realtors and as an industry, you know, very passive. I think right now in the, you know, data-driven information age where every single buyer, seller, investor has every answer, whether it's AI or not, right? Every answer is at the fingertips before a realtor, every even gets involved. And then, you know, I think that the problem too then becomes then what are we just door openers that we hold the lock to the door. So I think that, you know, I do a lot of videos and I put a lot of content out, you know, encouraging buyers, sellers to be asking the right questions. Obviously, that's good for me because I feel that I do a very good job of providing that value. I think we have to go above and beyond square feet, beds, beds, the details you can get on Zillow, you know, on your phone. That's not valuable for buyers and sellers. I think we have to provide pricing strategy inside into local market dynamics and really be focused on how a buyer or a seller or an investor can succeed for buyers. That's easy. Buy it for as little as possible for sellers. It's selling for as much as possible, right? And investors, you just had to play the game with them. So, and I think that we are at an evolutionary point where you have to have skill to be successful in real estate. We are past COVID where everybody wanted to buy here. We have a joke that it's, you know, if back then you could fog a mirror, you could sell a home and that was just, you know, alluding to the fact that it didn't take much skill when there was high demand. I think times are changed and we needed to change. We need to raise the bar, raise the expectations in the industry and I take that part of my job really very seriously. Yeah, it's interesting you bring that up because I was going on just for like, I was trying to do something myself and I was just looking at you, you have red fin and all these different sites and they'll allow you to, you know, what's my house worth? You know, they all do that type of thing. But the unique thing is that, you know, really, if you, if you dealing with a realtor who knows what they're doing, you can really come up with a really a much better picture of that like market analysis because you're going to factor in other things like you're saying there, you know, there's different things that come come into play, which I think if you do your due diligence, you're able to help that buyer or that seller to be able to make better choices. Yeah, I think, I think too we just forget that we're selling what is most people's largest asset. I do think as an industry we sort of take Maybe take that for granted to a degree and you know for me that's not a normal thought process So obviously, you know, I don't think I'm incredibly I'm not the only person thinking this way right I suspect and I hope that everybody else is starting to evolve this direction And I know that our team takes that that role very seriously and it's a pivotal role We are advocates for the deal and advocates for our clients and you know, I mean this it's it's not a small transaction and it's very much an emotional transaction and I do think that We have to just be as good at managing the transaction as managing the psychology of the transaction And you know, that's way before the negotiation which I think it gets all the hype in this this role in this job There's so much more to a positive transaction than dealing with the negotiation to me. That's the the least part of it I feel that it's it is the emotions because we're dealing with humans and You know and selling or buying a home is a very emotional roller coaster and I think what I try to do and what we try to do on our team is We try to flatten that out as much as possible to to commute high high in communication Clarity and transparency and and we build our own tools and I have seller dashboards and buyer dashboards that are way outside of the realm of what anybody else is doing To just try to ensure my clients are always informed about a milestone that's upcoming. There's no surprises that I feel is valuable because Again, that's that's what we would do in any other sales capacity and I don't see why we wouldn't do that in real estate when we're talking about An asset that is your home true Yeah, and and it's you know, it's definitely not it's not in significant price point usually We're going you know up to I mean the average home right now. I don't know I mean in our area it's about 330,000. I don't know across the world We're probably about six to seven fifty six hundred fifty thousand. Yeah, I mean that's a whole nother issue too right when when it gets in You know, it's a whole nother podcast episode to be fair about for ability especially in my market We're weird weird little market. We've got beautiful mountain homes in the pines Everything anybody wants but it becomes really hard to live here as a resident And I've sat on the affordable housing committee in Flagstaff as a realtor and it's it's a challenge and it's a challenge I don't know that anybody really has the answer to yet to be completely honest so Yeah, so price is great, you know from a revenue standpoint, but it's also a challenge too because it It prevents you know what I led with which is problem solving it It makes that a little bit harder to be completely honest for you know for somebody that's got You have three fifty to four hundred to spend as a first-time home buyer. That's a challenge Yeah, no definitely and now if you had to give a forecast Would you kind of say are gonna be some changes we're gonna see yeah? I mean I think so our market is actually warming up pretty aggressively right now You know, we do have snow and Flagstaff and it's bitterly cold today But that draws people in because the ski the ski slopes get snow You know that actually for most most markets might slow things down for us It really exacerbates the demand. I think we're we're a market that tends to year-over-year grow pretty aggressively We are a team that has grown year-over-year very aggressively Those are our goals our goals are to help more people obviously and we are a business at the end of the day too So I mean I think if you're not growing you know, we say if you're not growing you're slowing I don't think there's a gray area in business. I think it's one or the others for us We see probably an increase of 20 to 25% in revenue year-over-year between 2025 and 2026 I think that's very reasonable our our issue and challenge will always be higher demand than supply I think that's tied into national dynamics with rates we find that in this market right now We're you know everybody uses a decline as as a you know a way to explain a market that's just maybe stagnant I think that's where we're at we're not a decline. We're a stagnant. We're a frozen market We've got buyers that are sitting on the sidelines waiting for another rate drop or waiting for the perfect home or something that they're not seeing And then we have the same thing with sellers because sellers right now to 3 3 1/2% rate You know, they're saying well I want to move but do I really want to move? Do I want to get a six six and a half like do I really want that because I would buy you know in our market You know you're gonna get a smaller house for twice as much monthly payment on your mortgage rates I mean, I think we have this like very frozen market right now that I think we're gonna where you're already seen People realizing look this is the new reality rates drop at all a little bit for sure But I think we've started to grow beyond this mentality of let's wait so let's 3 1/2 again knowing that's probably just not gonna happen So I do see that this market's gonna continue to warm up I think Phoenix is warming up as well. We tend to Not necessarily tied to Phoenix, but as they warm up we're just crazy So I think we're already seeing those areas on a state-based Dynamics starting to to to wake back up from from you know what was for a lot of agents I know a slower winner for us Q4 was insane Q1 we've already started out and it's it's absolutely Ridiculous we're already ahead of last year very fortunate to do that we worked very hard for that It's not just as simple as me saying yay. We've done it. It's a long hours long days and a lot of you know a lot of swings and misses for people So I do see the market growing this year. We tend to grow year over year And it just I think it's it's gonna come down to how much the people want to be up here and want a new home, right? And I think that's that's where we're at in our market And now I know you talked about a couple things not I knew you said it was a YouTube Do you do like what's the best way to find you more about you company? Yeah? Yeah? No, it's great and I appreciate that yeah, YouTube is kind of my main focus. I tend to find that my viewers Are highly engaged there. So you know, I try to produce really valuable content no different than I would like I said with anything else I've ever done in the past and I think that content has to be valuable and it's got to serve I mean my content time tends to lean you know, it's fine a blend between Real estate guidance and strategy as well as kind of business. Again, that's my background I can speak very often to authentically about you know growing a sales team and overcoming hurdles right and and How marketing and sales work together and coalesce and how this business like that's kind of my focus there But I do speak a lot about real estate And I and I hope that it's valuable at least it seems from the the metrics I look like somebody's enjoying it. So that's a positive. So that's the only goal that I have No, definitely and where would they find that would it be under like what name? Yeah, it's Tyler sells real estate And that's on YouTube and across pretty much every social media Outlet okay, and what about the real estate company? Yeah, so we're just in Bemis real estate team and that would be JBR E.com Okay, wonderful So if anybody wants to reach out the website, there's definitely a contact information and they can go there Yeah, yeah, for sure I've got I've got my phone number in more places and I probably even know so if you can't get a hold of me Let me know where where and why and we'll fix that too But yeah, I'm pretty easy to get a hold of and I'd love to chat even if I always tell people Look, I mean Sometimes the best phone call is the one that helps somebody find an answer to a question Maybe they're struggling with it doesn't the outcomes don't need to be hey I want to buy Tyler. I want to sell I think that's premature and most conversations so for me a Conversation is a positive and I can help somebody and I could do good I really think that's what is simplest in business at the end of the day so I'm happy to chat with anybody Okay, wonderful. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today likewise. Thanks so much for having me Melissa. I really appreciate it Thank you for joining the business round up where we always try to bring you Interviews with some of the leading people in business whether it be technology Finance or energy. I hope you tune in I hope you subscribe and listen and we'll give you updates for new interviews that are coming up until next time. I'm Melissa Bell